# Volastra Therapeutics

Source: https://onco.cc/companies/volastra-therapeutics/  
OnCo record `volastra-therapeutics` (Company). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Volastra Therapeutics develops medicines taken by mouth, aimed at cancers whose cells keep making errors when they divide their chromosomes. Its two drugs block a protein called KIF18A and are in early trials, mainly in ovarian cancer.

## Summary

Volastra Therapeutics, founded in 2019 by Samuel Bakhoum, Lewis Cantley and Olivier Elemento, develops medicines that target chromosomal instability (CIN), the high rate of chromosome segregation errors in many cancers. It has two oral small-molecule KIF18A inhibitors in the clinic: VLS-1488, in a phase 1/2 trial in advanced solid tumours with high CIN (NCT05902988), and sovilnesib (formerly AMG 650), in-licensed from Amgen in February 2023, in a phase 1b trial in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (NCT06084416). The company reports FDA Fast Track designation for both in platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian cancer. At AACR 2026 it presented data proposing p16 expression as a candidate predictive biomarker for KIF18A inhibition. Its CINtech platform combines laboratory screening and computational analysis to find CIN-specific targets and biomarkers; two further programmes are undisclosed. The company names Eli Lilly and Company, B Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, Polaris Partners, Droia Ventures, Vida Ventures and Catalio Capital Management as funders.

## Fields

- Kind: Company
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: Volastra Therapeutics, Inc.; Volastra
- HQ: New York, NY
- Type: biotech
- Website: https://www.volastratx.com/

## Notes

- The company names Eli Lilly and Company as a funder, not Lilly Ventures, so the `lilly-ventures` investor id is not added; B Capital, Droia Ventures and Catalio Capital are not OnCo investor records.
- The sovilnesib trials (NCT06084416; completed first-in-human NCT04293094, which began in 2020 as AMG 650) are not OnCo trial records yet.
- VLS-1488 trial conditions also include squamous NSCLC, TNBC, head and neck, uterine and endometrial cancers; only the ovarian setting, which the company names for Fast Track, is linked at company level.

## Sources

- Official website: https://www.volastratx.com/
- Pipeline page: https://www.volastratx.com/pipeline/
- Partnerships and deals (Amgen sovilnesib licence): https://www.volastratx.com/partnerships-and-deals/
- Press release: AACR 2026 biomarker and combination data, with company background: https://www.volastratx.com/volastra-therapeutics-announces-biomarker-and-combination-data-around-aacr-2026-defining-an-rb-pathway-driven-pan-cancer-development-strategy-for-kif18a-inhibitors/
- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05902988 (VLS-1488): https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05902988
- ARCH Venture Partners portfolio entry (archived 16 Oct 2026): https://web.archive.org/web/20261016142320/https://www.archventure.com/portfolio/

## Connected records

- cancers: [High-grade serous ovarian cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/high-grade-serous-ovarian-cancer/), [Platinum-resistant ovarian cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/platinum-resistant-ovarian-cancer/)
- fronts: [Targeted Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/targeted-therapy/)
- technologies: [Synthetic lethality approaches](https://onco.cc/technologies/synthetic-lethality-approaches/)
- targets: [KIF18A](https://onco.cc/targets/kif18a/)
- drugs: [Sovilnesib](https://onco.cc/drugs/sovilnesib/), [VLS-1488](https://onco.cc/drugs/vls-1488/)
- trials: [A Phase I/II Study of VLS-1488 in Subjects With Advanced Cancer](https://onco.cc/trials/nct05902988/), [A Study of Sovilnesib in Subjects With Ovarian Cancer](https://onco.cc/trials/nct06084416/), [Study of AMG 650 in Adult Participants With Advanced Solid Tumors](https://onco.cc/trials/nct04293094/)
- companies: [ARCH Venture Partners](https://onco.cc/companies/arch-venture-partners/), [Polaris Partners](https://onco.cc/companies/polaris-partners/), [Vida Ventures](https://onco.cc/companies/vida-ventures/)

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